


Don't judge a book by the cover

by StrawberryLane



Series: The Mystery of Percival Graves' Marriage [3]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Good Original Percival Graves, M/M, MACUSA is attacked, MACUSA | Magical Congress of the United States of America, MACUSA's staff, POV Outsider, Protective Credence Barebone, Protective Original Percival Graves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 18:56:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9251351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryLane/pseuds/StrawberryLane
Summary: MACUSA has a staff that loves to gossip, if nothing else. So these rare visits from Graves' husband keeps the rumor mill churning for days on end afterward. The biggest, most stubborn rumor right now is that Graves' young man is a squib, because no one has ever seen him do magic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for all of the hits, kudos and comments! Means a lot!

Two years after Graves got married, Manny still works at MACUSA. It's funny, Manny thinks, how he now measures his time in how long Percival Graves has been married.

It's just, he never thought the marriage would last as long as it has. The young man the head of the department took as his spouse is not even twenty five years of age just yet. And with Graves working as much as he does, well, you can't blame Manny for being skeptical, can you?

They never see the couple much together, with Graves always avoiding work functions and almost never bringing his husband along to work after that one time that ended with the whole department staring at them outside of Graves' office.

But sometimes, sometimes the young husband – Credence, his name is – turns up in the lobby to wait for Graves at the end of the day. It's a very rare thing to happen, which of course means it's all the more subject to office gossip the next day.

MACUSA has a staff that loves to gossip, if nothing else. So these rare visits from Graves' husband keeps the rumor mill churning for days on end afterward. The biggest, most stubborn rumor right now is that Graves' husband is a squib, because no one has ever seen him do magic.

One day Credence shows up right as lunch rolls around. Manny nods to acknowledge the young man when he passes by Manny's desk and Credence gives a quick nod back, continuing towards his husband's office.

The hushed whispers of Manny's coworkers begin the moment the door to Graves' office falls shut behind the young man.

Manny gathers his papers and his lunch from his desk, because whilst he's going to continue study these reports during lunch, he will not have another dinner at his desk, dammit. He will not be spending his lunch break anywhere else than the in the room specifically made for lunch eating reasons.

For the last couple of months, MACUSA (and therefore Manny) has been investigating what they think is an illegal smuggling ring. They sent in undercover agents, who, unfortunately to everyone involved, got discovered.

It's been a right headache for everyone in the department, all right. Graves has been at his office almost round the clock, which perhaps is the reason his husband has actually shown up during the lunch break, to make sure his husband actually eats something. And to spend time with him, probably.

But back to the problem at hand. The smugglers, who at first were thought to be just unemployed wizards trying to make a living from illegal things, have turned out to be a much bigger problem than anticipated. Manny doesn't like the feeling he gets when he studies the reports from the undercover aurors who made it out.

There's this feeling in the air, like something is brewing just under the surface. Something is going to happen, something is just about to begin, something much bigger than MACUSA could ever have anticipated.

*

Manny has finished his lunch and is on his way back to his desk when the first explosion hits. He yelps and throws himself down onto the ground, crawling for cover as fast as he can as the smuggling ring, because it's them all right, makes their way into MACUSA's supposedly secure headquarters. They're dressed in dark, casual clothing, masks across their faces to prevent the aurors and staff at MACUSA from seeing their faces. Manny curses. He, along with many others, suspected something like this would happen, but not this soon. Not today.

Another jinx, spell, whatever, makes its way across the open space of the lobby, before setting fire to a – thankfully – empty cabinet.

Manny's too old to crawl around on the ground like this. There's a reason he's on desk duty and not in the active field anymore.

He hides behind a bookshelf, pressing himself flat on the ground. He casts almost any spell he can think off that might help in this situation, anything to defeat the smugglers. How they could even get inside of MACUSA's headquarters to begin with is a frightening thought.

Manny is busy helping Bethany Burrows fight off a mean looking smuggler when the door to Graves' office bursts open and the man himself finally appears on the scene.

What follows is a battle of spells and jinxes flying back and forth, people getting hit and falling down, MACUSA's staff steadily losing ground. Manny somehow ends up back to back with Graves, who seems to do everything he can to keep the smugglers away from his office, throwing spell after nasty spell towards anyone who even as much as looks at it.

*

They lose. Manny can't quite believe how it happened, but they lost. It might have something to do with the Ukrainian Ironbelly the smugglers let loose towards the end of the battle. In the panic that followed the dragon's entrance all of MACUSA's staff, including Manny and Graves, were quickly relieved of their wands and then tied up with ropes and left on the ground in lobby.

They're a sorry sight, Manny can't help but think when he takes a look around him. Several of his colleagues are injured, sporting bloody noses, open cuts, broken limbs, some even have extra limbs or the bones in their wand hand has disappeared. It's a nasty sight.

A smuggler, a big fellow, arms as big as Manny's legs, comes to a stop before Graves, who's sitting on the ground next to Manny. Graves is chained up more than any of the other staff together. He's basically one big pile of rope.

"Open your door for us," the smuggler tells Graves, who answers by spitting the man in the face. He gets a vicious kick to the head for his troubles.

"Open your door for us," the smuggler repeats.

It goes on like that for a while, the smuggler repeating his request and Graves refusing to give an answer. After a period of time, possibly not longer than ten minutes, though it feels like forever, the smuggler produces a small bottle, filled to the brim with a clear liquid, like water.

Manny knows better though. It's Veritaserum.

He can only watch helplessly as the smuggler forces Graves' mouth open and pours the liquid inside, forcing Graves' to swallow. His eyes quickly glaze over, even as he sputters and tries to spit the liquid back out again.

"Tell us how to open the door to your office," the smuggler tells Graves again, for the millionth time, and this time Graves does.

Manny can literally see the air around the office door move as the wards crumble.

Three of the smugglers, wands raised high and ready, move into the room. After only a minute or two they come back out again, dragging Graves' husband between them, tied up like a package, unable to move at all. Credence looks terrified, eyes darting back and forth, letting out a choked sound of agony when he sees Graves on the floor.

"Found 'im, boss," says one of them to the smuggler who forced Graves to drink the truth serum.

"Good, I guess we'll be leaving then. But don't worry, I'm sure somebody will find you and release you soon enough. If the dragon doesn't get hungry first, that is."

With that, the smugglers all move towards the door, still dragging a struggling Credence along.

"Sweetheart," Graves mumbles when they pass by him and Manny, in a voice that should be too quiet for Credence to hear in his terrified state, but somehow isn't. Credence makes a noise in the back of his throat, turning his head as best he can to keep his eyes on Graves.

"Credence, sweetheart. You know I would never ask this of you if it wasn't absolutely necessary, but... I need you to let go, Credence."

His words cause confusion and worry among those who can hear him, the smugglers keeping Credence's body off the floor included.

"I know you can control it," Graves says, when Credence appears to hesitate. "Just like we practiced-"

He doesn't get any further than that, because the boss smuggler's boot makes contact with his head, once again. He falls into Manny's lap in a heap.

Manny though, is a bit too preoccupied to notice the other man's weight on him. Because Credence is smoking, like literally smoking, his body is tendrils of smoke and his eyes are turning white. The smugglers holding him up end up letting him fall to the floor in their haste to get away from his convulsing form. Manny watches horrified as the young man falls on his face towards the floor, unable to do anything from crushing his nose against the ground.

But Credence's face never makes contact with the floor, because in the next second he's replaced by a large, twisting, roaring mass of black smoke. The ropes that kept his hands and feet bound are laying in a useless heap on the floor.

Screams of confusion and horror are heard among the people in the lobby.

Oh Merlin.

Percival Graves is married to an obscurial. No, he married _the_ obscurial. He married the obsurical who in his obscurus form destroyed downtown New York just over two years ago.

Manny's so happy he could cry he's not on the smugglers side. He's especially happy he's not the smuggler who kicked Percival Graves in the head, because Credence is the most powerful obscurial to ever exist, alive long after he's supposed to have died from the thing growing inside of him. And he's pissed off.

Manny watches transfixed, in a sort of happy yet terrified state, as the big black cloud envelops the smugglers, one by one, tossing them through the air, this way and that way and this way again, before dropping them on the floor, which they meet with sick cracks sounding through the air. He doesn't know if they're alive or dead.

One of the smugglers tries to save himself by grabbing Bethany Burrows and keeping her between himself and the obscurus. The obscurus stops for a moment, as if considering something, before diving straight at Bethany, who screams at the top of her lungs. But the obscurus never actually touches her. Instead, it loops around her, like it's going to give her a hug, grabbing the smuggler and lifting him into air, before dropping him with a sickening thud on the floor in front of Bethany's feet. Manny doesn't need to look twice to see that the man's neck is broken.

Graves returns to consciousness just as the last smuggler hits the floor and the smoke settles near the roof, like a hovering storm cloud on the horizon.

"Credence," Graves' calls as he takes in the situation around him and fights against the ropes that are keeping him tied down. "Use my office. Get back in control, I know you can do it. I believe in you!"

The smoke travels the short distance to Graves' office haltingly, like it is a small child who will get a scolding for staying out to late once it get's home. The door slamming shut behind the smoke sounds like an explosion in the deathly silence that follows.

Manny tries really hard not to stare at the man sitting next to him. He fails.

A handful of minutes later, the door to Graves' office opens and Credence appears once again. He looks like he did before the attack, if somewhat paler and more worried. He goes straight for his husband, untying the ropes the no-maj way, with trembling hands. As soon as he's able, Graves draws Credence into his arms, whispering into the young man's ear. He let's go of Credence soon, though, stands up and stretches. He walks up to the smugglers, looking through their pockets until he finds his wand. The dragon, who strangely enough didn't seem to scared when the big black smoke appeared in the room, watches his every move, as does everyone else in the room. Graves ignores the animal in favor of casting spells around the room, making the ropes and chains untie themselves.

*

Once the confusion, fear and happiness over still being alive has settled down a little and medical witches and wizards have arrived to take care of those who need it, once the cleaning work has begun and the workers from the Care of Magical Beasts department have found themselves fit enough to handle a dragon, Manny makes his way over to the corner where Bethany is currently thanking Graves' husband for saving her life. The young man looks uncomfortable with all the attention, the expression on his face begging Graves' to rescue him from Bethany's suffocating hugs. Graves' smiles, and looks so fond Manny can't help but smile too, and gently removes Bethany's arms from around his husband.

"That's enough off that, Miss Burrows. It's been an eventful day, and I think what we all need to do right now is to get home and rest. The paperwork can wait until another day, I'm sure."

His words are met with cheers from the whole office. Manny quickly finds his coat and joins the others in the alleyways that surround the building, waiting for his turn so that he can apparate away without being noticed by the no-majes walking literally an arm-length away.

The last thing he sees before disappearing himself is Graves' wrapping his arms around Credence and them disappearing into thin air in a tangle of limbs.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it!


End file.
